THE MONGOOSE FUNNY CAR'S COMIN' BACK

Funny Car veteran pilot and master re-builder Pat Foster let us in on his latest project. Ohio businessman Don Trasin has commissioned Foster to restore the original Tom "the Mongoose" McEwen English Leather Funny Car that won the 1978 U.S. Nationals Finals over Don "the Snake" Prudhomme.

The car will sit on its original Sarte chassis and fiberglass body, although the chassis and body had been separated long ago and lived in distant parts of the country. As the photo shows, the project is coming down to the wire for its debut at this year's 49th Annual U.S. Nationals over Labor Day weekend. Pat has promised more photos and details, as we get closer to Indy. Stay tuned. [8-15-2003]

MILLICAN GETS 26TH CAREER WIN

Two-time IHRA Top Fuel Champion Clay Millican of Team Werner/Lehman Racing earned his 26th career IHRA Top Fuel victory Aug. 10 at the Northern Nationals in Martin, Mich.,

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making him the all-time winningest Top Fuel driver in IHRA history.

Millican surpassed the 24-year-old record of 25 wins, amassed by "Big Daddy" Don Garlits between 1972 and 1979. Millican completed this feat in only three and a half seasons. He has won six of the seven IHRA races in which he has raced this season, and has a career final round winning percentage of 89.6.

Following the race, IHRA President Bill Bader presented Millican with the green starting light from his final round against Tim Cullinan. Millican's crew shaved the head of the Drummonds, Tenn. driver in celebration. [8-11-2003]

CERNY RE-JOINS HERBERT TEAM AT BRAINERD

Doug Herbert took what he hopes is a giant step toward improving his racecar's performance by hiring veteran Wes Cerny to tune his Snap-on Racing Top Fuel dragster.

"Wes will be on board when we get to Brainerd (Minn., site of the Lucas Oil Nationals, Aug. 15-17) and will definitely tune the car there and at Indianapolis (site of the U.S. Nationals, Aug. 29-Sept. 1)," said Herbert. "I want to return to the performance level we had late last year."

With Cerny making the tuning decisions, Herbert enjoyed an exciting finish to the 2002 NHRA POWERade season. He earned his first NHRA No. 1 qualifying position at the second Chicago-area event in September - registering his career-best time of 4.518 seconds - and added another at the second Las Vegas race in October. He also went to the semifinals at four of the last five races, finishing seventh in the final standings.

"I think this will be good for us," added Herbert. "This year, we'd hoped to be able to build from what we learned with Cerny tuning us last year, but we've struggled," added Herbert. "I'm definitely looking at extending Cerny's working relationship with us."

Crew chief Ron Douglas and tuning consultant Jim Brissette remain with the team. "Ron and Brissette will work with Cerny to make sure everything gets done," Herbert said. (Jeff Burk photo) [8-11-2003]